Here is some backstory on me- in honor of my first post here. My parents migrated here from Europe nearly two decades ago, I would be the first American-born child. I am bilingual but far more literate and fluent in English than my first language. English is probably my strongest subject. My sister attended American university through a less competitive admission process (80% acceptance) and triple-majored, however she is not living a sustainable life at 31 with her TRIPLE-major college degree. She is also a mother to two adorable children. For income she depends on her partner. As much as I adore her, that is not the route I want to go down. I want to make my family proud, and I want to obtain a degree from a school of prestige and pursue a career I could get something out of, and support my family with (including my biological). I love being in California and I cannot see myself attending college elsewhere. The schools are exceptional. I want to be a strong candidate for the UC schools and other private universities within the state, I will however, be an out-of-state applicant. Pepperdine is my dream school at the moment.
Now, the backstory on my academics- I am a sophomore and this year has been incredibly rough for me in regards to personal issues and mental health. I had an unweighted 4.0 GPA both semesters my freshman year which has supported my cumulative a lot, I took 1 AP class, 1 IB class. This year I am only in AP World History, and take regular level classes. My district enrolls everybody in Honors English, so technically I have been in Honors English my entire high school career if it has any significance- not sure if other districts do this. Anyways, because of these personal issues this year has been hard. I will have a 3.4 first semester (4 As in my 3 elective classes and English, 2 Bs in Algebra 2 and AP World, C in Chemistry), and I am expecting a 3.5-3.7 second semester (after making up an F for Alg.2 in summer school…). I am really concerned that my academic performance sophomore year will jeopardize my chances of making it to a competitive university, especially my F in Algebra 2. I have to flunk the class in order to receive a scholarship for summer school- that I know I will get an A out of. My school withdraws the F from your GPA, but it is shown on your transcript that you failed the class then replaced the grade through summer school. I feel like I am making the right decision by initially flunking, because at this rate I could not score higher than a C and have many holes in my math skills that would not serve me well in further math. I figured I could use some summer re-programming on my left brain for that haha. I worry that summer school is a bad decision but I do not think I will turn back on it. Pepperdine at the moment is my dream school. I have been getting a lot of support lately and want to challenge myself next year so colleges see how capable I really am of being a good student despite that one F and decline in GPA sophomore year. I will strengthen my high school transcript these next two years to compensate for the damage I’ve done now. I’ll do this by pursuing the IB Diploma next year with (SL: Math Studies, Psychology, Spanish) and (HL: History, English, Biology). I was going to head down the Precalculus->Calculus route, but I feel like IB Math Studies → AP Statistics is more suitable for me and will have a better impact on my GPA. I plan to work extremely hard next year and assume I will graduate with higher than a 3.6 unweighted GPA, barely above 4.0 weighted. I might double science junior year (IB/AP Physics 1 AND IB Biology SL) to compensate for lacking a stronger math- the physics would not go towards my IB Diploma though. I’m not sure that I will do this, I may just take regular Physics alongside IB Bio but I definitely will double science if that is impressive at all. In my high school career I would have taken a combination of 14 AP/IB classes. For extracurriculars, I have been a part of student government for one year and plan to run for another. My first year I was on our varsity Dance/Drill team, and currently I am a varsity Cheerleader- which I will most likely stick to being for my last three years because I’m huge on school spirit and dance. I will work a job junior and senior year, may consider doing a competitive club like HOSA (medicine) or DECA (business) but am not sure. The extracurricular portion I would need to build. I also haven’t been strong on volunteering because I want to find something to dedicate all of my hours to. I am looking at being a part of a teen council for Planned Parenthood (could earn several hundred hours) where I travel locally and educate classes, individuals, groups of people etc., or volunteering for a suicide/support hotline through a local institution where I earn about 100-200 hours through training and work. I haven’t decided between the two but both appeal to me. What may this volunteer experience reflect of me to colleges? When I apply for a major I’m assuming it will be Psychology, Marketing, Accounting, OR Biology. This may change completely in two years since I don’t have it figured out. I would have all these subjects within my HS transcript, Biology for 3 of 4 years. Psychology is probably my reach- but also a competitive major clearly. If I do down that path I’d look into being a psychologist, or psychiatrist even. I don’t know if I’d be competent to attend medical school because of my math skills, but it is in the back of my mind.
This is way unnecessarily long but for anybody that has made it to the end, do you think I have the qualfications to be considered for the UC schools (USC, UCLA, UCSD, UC Berkeley), or even more so Pepperdine? And what can I do now as a Sophomore to increase my chances of admission… any advice?